Onyx
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Ray Henriques has success, love, friendship ... but lately it's not enough. Yet it's not just Ray who is on a quest for deeper meaning. For Jesse, Ray's lover of ten years, it is a quest accelerated by his imminent death from AIDS. And for young married father of two Mike Tedesco, it is a search for the heart of masculinity. The sexual exploration which begins when Ray and Mike meet awakens a restlessness in both men, which resoundingly alters their future paths. As Ray's life begins to draw him increasingly into the future, a future without Jesse, he attempts to tether himself to the here and now with frequent visits to a past where life's answers seemed simpler and more meaningful. But when Jesse's fundamentalist Christian mother rolls into town to take charge of her son's final weeks, he is yanked from his reverie to face an opponent unlike any he has ever known.
Marked by shifting points of view, humor, descriptive brilliance and unexpected revelation, Onyx is a multifaceted exploration of inner lives, motivation, love, and the sometimes hollow center beneath a polished surface.
First published to acclaim in 2001, this new edition features a foreword by the author.
"Felice Picano, one of our very best writers, has outdone his previous riches with a novel that is smart and sexy and funny and historically compelling … You will be astonished by the intelligence, humor, and credibility of this masterfully executed tale, written by one of our best writers ... The best and most entertaining novel of 1999." – Bay Area Reporter
"Impressive in its thoroughly imagined detail … the surprises at the end keep the reader's head spinning." – Publishers Weekly
"[Picano] approaches the page with a newcomer's exuberance." – New York Times Book Review
"An incredibly rich and densely textured world ... Picano is honest and excruciatingly descriptive ... a raw journey through death and dying, unsparing in his take on how survivors cope." – Roger Durbin, Library Journal
"Picano has always drawn his main characters as gay heroes, unashamed and unafraid of who they are and what life has to offer, whether positive or negative. This, ultimately, is the measure of Picano's genius." – Greg Herren, Lambda Book Report
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the 20 years since the emergence of AIDS as a national health crisis, few writers have chronicled the disease's enormous impact on the nation's social and cultural landscape as has Picano (Like People in History; Ambidextrous, etc.). He turns inward with his new novel to explore the essence of sexual boundaries, love, and illness as a catalyst for personal analysis and growth. Ray Henrique, owner of a small record company, strives to maintain a little stability in his life while he cares for his longtime lover, Jesse, who is slowly surrendering to the relentless ravages of AIDS. The emotional demands of serving as dutiful caretaker do nothing to curb his hunger for sexual and romantic adventure, a situation remedied by his seduction (endorsed by Jesse) of Mike Tedesco, a young, married repairman with three children. Against an ever-shifting backdrop of eccentric characters, Ray and Mike embark on a physical relationship that forces both men to confront their notions of love, sex and masculinity and their conclusions are riddled with more questions than answers. Meanwhile, Picano takes a graphic yet compassionate approach to detailing Jesse's decline, and some fine comic moments arise when Adele, Jesse's horrible mother, takes center stage. Striking in its bold depictions of both pleasure and pain, this novel is more introspective than previous Picano books, taking a fresh angle on familiar themes of love and death, and manifesting greater insight in its musings about living and loss during the traumatic years of the AIDS epidemic.
